Gamida Cell announces preclinical data on GDA-501

Gamida Cell announced preclinical data on GDA-501, a genetically modified NAM Natural Killer, or NK, pre-clinical cell therapy candidate from Gamida Cell’s expanding pipeline of cell therapy candidates. The data will be presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s 37th Annual Meeting taking place in Boston, Massachusetts from November 10-12. NK cells have generated significant interest as potential new treatment options for patients with cancers. In pre-clinical and clinical studies, Gamida Cell’s proprietary NAM technology has demonstrated successful expansion of NK cells, enhanced functionality, increased cytotoxic activity as well as creating a protective effect against oxidative stress and improved homing to targeted blood and solid tumor cancers. The success of immune cell therapies has been limited in solid tumors due to multiple barriers, including immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, inefficient trafficking, and heterogeneity of tumor antigens. In a poster presentation titled, "Engineered NAM-NK cells with HER2-CAR expression demonstrate increased cytotoxicity against HER2-expressing solid tumors", GDA-501, a genetically modified HER2-CAR NAM-NK cell, displayed significantly enhanced and persistent in vitro cytotoxicity and potency when cultured with HER2+ targeted cancer cells. Cryopreserved GDA-501 significantly inhibited tumor growth of a HER2+ solid tumor model in vivo. These preclinical data demonstrate potent antitumor activity and suggest that GDA-501 represents a unique potential treatment option using an allogeneic NAM-enabled cell therapy candidate for this poor prognostic group of patients with cancers that express HER2.